TIME

So I will be leaving Kigali in 19 days and I will be home in 20 days! It is so incredible how time is flying! I am currently taking 6 credits and I have found them to be really time consuming. With 12 class sessions over a 4-week period I have to read 7 novels and 2 textbooks. I also have 7 exams, 12 papers (1 page single spaced) and then a 10-page (double spaced) paper. So to say in the least I have a ton of work!

For my Traditional African Culture and Religion class we are now studying the concept of time. We are comparing African's view on time and the American's view. Africans really don't believe in time. If they have a meeting at 2 and run into an old friend on the street...Well they will sit and talk with the friend till 3. Americans though would be making that meeting regardless of whom they ran into. I know I am personally VERY guilty of this. I am extremely time orientated...

This isn't what God calls us to be though. We are called to live the greatest commandment, which is love! We have such an awesome God who loves us and he calls us to love one another. We shouldn't have "office hours" for those whom God calls us to share the Gospel with. We are God’s children 24/7. Imagine if God was only God from 9-5 on weekdays… Life would be pretty out of control…

In the Gospel Mark, Jesus was tired and needing a break. When 5,000 men gathered around him it would of been reasonable for him to want a break and excuse them. But he had compassion! He ministered, performed miracles, and fed all of them! Jesus who was King and Savior was willing to put the people’s need before his. He was not worried about the fact that it was getting late or that he had been working all day... No, he was worried for the people! If Christ has this love for his people--then I should follow in his footsteps. I am not saying that I am going to disregard all time schedules. But I do know that I need to give more of a "person priority" rather than a time priority. I am so blessed to have the most amazing friends and family. And God has used Africa to show me how I need to give more priority to them rather than time, money, school, or work. And I think we are all called to do this because we have a God who doesn’t work 40 hours or even 60 hours a week… No, we have a God who works 168 hours a week and he takes no vacations.